"Aquila Space, the firm responsible for building, launching and operating satellites in the Landmapper constellations, plans to send the first two spacecraft into sun-synchronous orbit Feb. 26 on a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstans Baikonur Cosmodrome. Aquila Space obtained the launch contract through JSC Glavkosmos, an affiliate of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, that arranges flight opportunities for secondary payloads."

These may be 6U or 16 U cubesats.Any idea which launch? and which February 26? Progress MS-2 (No. 432) is the only Soyuz launch in February of 2016, but that's not sun synchronous.

Posted by Vladislav Gooba on Seesat-l on January 28, 2016:OT: Some details about Russian amateur Mayak satelliteThe satellite will carry 4x 4-meter metallized membrane reflectors with 95% reflectivity, and its visual magnitude as the satellite tumbles may peak at -10!See his post for more details.

Looks like this launch is scheduled for November 2016, according to CEO of "Dauria Aerospace" (manufacturer of two MKA-N sats):http://tass.ru/kosmos/3335592- "... we hope for a November launch ... From Baikonur, along with Kanopus V IK "

With help from SkyRocket; Gunter's Space Page I think we can identify all satellites. Tbd is the amount of Dove's and Lemur's. There are 19 satellites named on Gunter's. Add 48 Dove's and 68 Lemur's and you end up with 7375 satellites. +2x CICERO = 77

[off topic: Other news from Glavkosmos (Soyuz-2{ST}): a joint venture with KOSMOTRAS (Rockot Dnepr), GK Launch Services. I wonder how GK Launch Services and Ariane-group/space (EUROCKOT/Starlem) relate to each other. Will these EU-Russia joint ventures keep operating or are they ending operations?

Posted by Vladislav Gooba on Seesat-l on January 28, 2016:OT: Some details about Russian amateur Mayak satelliteThe satellite will carry 4x 4-meter metallized membrane reflectors with 95% reflectivity, and its visual magnitude as the satellite tumbles may peak at -10!See his post for more details.

As I have noted elsewhere, this has the potential to make astronomers unhappy.The 4 reflectors are 4 *square* meters, and triangular, so size more like 4 x 2 m each.

I'd like to remind people that this is not the first attempt of Russia to create an artificial star Before Mayak, there were Znamya 2 and Znamya 2.5 in 1993 and 1999. Znamya 2 was successful, but Znamya 2.5 got stuck into one of the Mir antennas and failed. Znamya 3 was also planned, but never built.

"We fight so hard for dark skies in and around our planet, Nick Howes, an astronomer and former deputy director of the Kielder Observatory in Northumberland, told IFLScience. To see this being potentially ruined by some ridiculous crowdfunded nonsense makes my heart simply despair.

Quote

Alex Shaenko, the project leader, told IFLScience previously that it will not be a problem, adding that there are a lot of spacecraft flying in the night sky, some even brighter than Mayak. Thats true to an extent, but a lot of these can be easily tracked and corrected for.

The Soviet Union did plan to build these in order to illuminate cold Siberian cities with less light during the winter, and to improve farm production... So they researched this during 70s and 80s, and implemented the Znamya project in 90s.

Apparently the Mayak creators have nothing to do with the original goals of the projects. They just want this as a public stunt. Which in itself is good.

The one thing I wonder is... why a space mirror, why not test Solar Sailing?

The Soviet Union did plan to build these in order to illuminate cold Siberian cities with less light during the winter, and to improve farm production... So they researched this during 70s and 80s, and implemented the Znamya project in 90s.

Apparently the Mayak creators have nothing to do with the original goals of the projects. They just want this as a public stunt. Which in itself is good.

The one thing I wonder is... why a space mirror, why not test Solar Sailing?

Yes a publicity stunt that judging by Twitter has done nothing but annoy astronomers both professional and amateur.

I've counted the ISIS QuadPacks and ECM Deployers. I came to 2x plates with 6xQP, so 12x Quadpacks; and two plates with (ECM) Astrofein PSL-P (PicoSatellite Launch Pack; 12U), one with 3 deployers and one with 2. So 5x PSL-P . This is in total 17x 12U = 204U.

I've also calculated the total U-volume of the satellites. this is 220U.

ECM looks to have three PSL-P's with 4 doors; one with 2 and one with 3. So they launch 3x 6U and 14x 3U (or a 1U)

The clue is in comparing this image from ECM (also attatched to the first post) with the last picture from Roskosmos.

Edit:It looks like I've overlooked a plate beneath FlyingLaptop. This blogpost from planet indicates that all 48 doves are integrated inside 12 QP. From a ISL tweet we know that the two Corvus-BC (6U) are integrated inside a QP. In the blog, planet also stated that CST arranged the launch. DAURIA aerospace is one of the partners of CST. Aren't the Corvus-BC and MKA-N practicality the same? Could they also have been integrated inside a QP. If this is correct ISL11 involves 48 doves (12 QP) and 2QP with two 6U. The new total is 19x a 12U deployer, 228U.

There also looks to be a deployer inside the structure beneath Kanopus-V-IK. This could also be a deployment controller.

On July 9, 2017, in the assembly and testing building of platform 31 of the Baikonur cosmodrome, the specialists of the companies of Roscosmos completed the operations on the docking of the space head with the third stage of the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket in preparation for the launch of the spacecraft Canopus- B-IC "and a cluster of 72 small satellites of the associated load.

On July 10, work is planned on the general assembly of the space rocket (RKN), consideration by the state commission of the results of the preparation of ILV and ground equipment, as well as the decision on the export of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket to the launch pad.

The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with the Kanopus-V-IK spacecraft is scheduled for July 14, 2017 at 09:36 Moscow time from site # 31 of the Baikonur cosmodrome. The "Fregat" upper stage will ensure the removal of the "Kanopus-V-IK" spacecraft and associated small satellites into three different orbits.

This is a very complex mission with 7 burns for the Fregat to put the satellites in 3 different polar orbits. However the timing given for the release of the final batch of 48 satellites and the de-orbit burn looks suspect - there's a 4+ hours wait after reaching the 3rd orbit. I wonder if there's a time zone error and the final 3 entries are 3 hours earlier than listed here?

In this video at 3:40 the missing plate is visible. It contains a ISL Quadpack (2x Corvus-BC) and two 6U deployers, most likely also from ISILaunch and containing the two MKA-N 6U cubesats.So 13x Quadpacks, 2x 6U, 5x PSL-P, are the cubesat deployers used.

On July 14, 2017 at 9:36 Moscow time from the Baikonur cosmodrome the Soyuz-2.1a launcher successfully launched with the space probe (KA) of the Earth remote sensing system Kanopus-V-IC and a group of small satellites from 72 Federal contracts and contracts of the Glavkosmos.

In accordance with the flight program in 8 minutes 48 seconds of flight, the head unit separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle and the Fregat upper stage proceeded to form the first transient orbit for the output of the Canopus-V-IR spacecraft to the target orbit.

The "Fregat" upper stage (developed by Lavochkin NPO) has a unique propulsion system, and it will have to perform a complicated program for launching the Canopus-V-IC spacecraft and 72 small spacecraft into three different orbits. Separation of spacecraft in the first target orbit ("Canopus-V-IC") is planned at 10:38 Moscow time. At the second stage, from 12:01 to 12:26 Moscow time, it is planned to separate 24 small devices. At the next stage, from 17:18 to 17:41 Moscow time, 48 spacecraft are supposed to be withdrawn in the third target orbit. The program of the work of the "Fregat" RB will be completed by its reduction from orbit by flooding in the water area of ​​the Indian Ocean at approximately 18:18 Moscow time.

The head organization-developer of spacecraft "Kanopus-V" is JSC "Corporation VNIIEM". The operator of the space system is the Scientific Center for Operational Earth Monitoring of JSC Russian Space Systems. Control over the flight of spacecraft is carried out by the Flight Control Center (PMU).

The target use of the space complex "Kanopus-V" is carried out in accordance with the applications of consumers for obtaining information on Earth remote sensing. Reception, processing and dissemination of satellite information is carried out by the centers of ROSKOSMOSA (Scientific Center for Operative Earth Monitoring) and Roshydromet (FGBU "Research Center" Planet "). The information received from the satellite is in demand by Russian and foreign consumers and is used to solve practical problems.

"Canopus-V-IC" is the second device in the space complex "Canopus-B". The spacecraft for operational monitoring of technogenic and natural emergencies "Canopus-V-IC" is designed to solve operational problems:

Monitoring of man-made and natural emergencies, including spontaneous hydrometeorological phenomena;

Detection of forest fires with an area of ​​25 m2, large emissions of pollutants into the natural environment;

Monitoring of agricultural activities, natural (including water and coastal) resources;

Yay, I got in touch with the guys running the Mayak project via Facebook. They're very nice and passionate. They said Mayak has separated from the rocket... but now we wait for NORAD to confirm its orbit. When NORAD assigns a number, the mobile apps will start working. You will be able to get the apps from here:

The small satellites 'TechnoSat' and 'Flying Laptop' are successfully launched into space

14 July 2017

On 14 July 2017At 08:36 CEST, the two research satellites 'Flying Laptop' and 'TechnoSat' were successfully launched to space on board a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome. The development, construction and launch of TechnoSat and the launch of Flying Laptop were financed by the Space Administration at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fόr Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) with funds from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. As well as testing new technologies under space conditions, the small satellites are also educational training missions  doctoral students developed, constructed and qualified the satellites for their flight to space and undergraduate students supported this process with their dissertations. "For us, practical training for young engineers is an important aspect of these small satellite missions. Another is the chance to test technologies. Many manufacturers, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), would like to test their aerospace technology and components for future satellites directly in orbit under space conditions. But up to now, such missions have been very costly. Small satellites could turn things around in this respect," stresses Christian Nitzschke, programme manager at the Department of Technology for Aerospace Systems and Robotics in the DLR Space Administration, who is responsible for the missions.

The TechnoSat nanosatellite will test seven experiments

"Before new technical components are used in future space missions, they must be tested in orbit. Thanks to their limited size and weight and the use of advanced components from the areas of information and communications technology and the automotive industry, nanosatellites can make space missions more efficient," explains project manager Merlin Barschke from the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin). Seven experimental payloads are installed on the octagonal TechnoSat nanosatellite (which weighs in at approximately 20 kilograms), whose function and performance will be tested in orbit.

Orienting the satellites and determining their position

Also on board is an innovative concept developed by TU Berlin for orienting satellites  the Fluid-Dynamic Actuator. Instead of an electric motor, an electromagnetic pump is used, which channels a liquid metal through a circular canal, allowing the satellite to be quickly and precisely oriented. Conventional, electric motor-driven reaction wheels developed by TU Berlin are also being tested in parallel. In addition, the STELLA star tracker developed by the University of Wόrzburg must also demonstrate its functional capability by determining the position of the satellite based on the position of the brightest stars.

The team will also test the HISPICO S-Band Transmitter, a joint project of TU Berlin and IQ wireless GmbH. It is designed to transmit higher data volumes from orbit to the ground station than current radio connections allow. For this purpose, the TechnoSat camera will take photographs, which will be sent via the S-Band Transmitter to Earth and will also be used for public relations work. The laser retroreflectors, developed jointly by the TU Berlin, the Helmholtz Centre in Potsdam and the Austrian Academy of Sciences, will measure the satellite orbit with precision. To do this, a laser beam will be directed from the ground station to the satellite, and the time that elapses until the beam is reflected back to Earth will be measured. This experiment is intended to show that small, lower-cost, commercial reflectors can be used for this application. The SOLID (Solar panel based Impact Detector) in-situ sensor developed at the DLR Institute of Space Systems will also be tested in orbit. In future, SOLID will record the prevalence of space debris and micrometeorites in space and improve existing simulation models.

Flying Laptop  a small satellite as a training and test mission

"The 'Flying Laptop' project offers both undergraduate and doctoral students a fantastic opportunity to put learned theory into practice and gain project experience in a real space mission. So far, more than 150 student dissertations and over 20 doctoral papers have been written in connection with this project," reports Sabine Klinkner, project manager at the University of Stuttgart. The 110-kilogram Flying Laptop small satellite was developed and constructed by post-graduate and undergraduate students at the university's Institute of Space Systems. The necessary infrastructure for the construction, qualification and operation of small satellites in general was also created as part of the development of the satellite. In addition to a large clean room for the integration of satellites, an optics laboratory and a thermal-vacuum chamber, the ground station with a control segment at the University of Stuttgart was also set up and a satellite simulation environment was developed.

Testing innovative technologies in space

The satellite platform itself forms the main component of the technology testing in space. It has a system for high-precision attitude control and three solar panels that generate approximately 270 watts. A series of innovative systems that will also be tested in orbit are also on board. These include an innovative unfolding mechanism for the solar panels, a new type of on-board computer system and the OSIRIS data transmission system, which will demonstrate high data transmission speeds via an infrared laser link. In cooperation with the company TESAT, a payload data communications system in the S-band frequency range has been developed. An innovative operating and security concept has also been developed in cooperation with Airbus Defence and Space in Friedrichshafen.

Furthermore, for the mission objective of Earth observation an innovative, multi-spectral camera system will observe the Earth from different angles. With these images, the vegetation will be examined to, for example, study the dissemination of introduced plant species. In addition, with the aid of Automatic Identification System (AIS) receivers provided by the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen, it will also be possible to received signals from ships. The combination with the photographs taken by the satellite is new, as the real position of the ships can now be compared with the signals received. Furthermore, in cooperation with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), the star trackers built into the satellite will be used to look for so-called near-Earth objects (NEOs). Asteroids within Earths orbit that are barely visible from the ground will be detected.

To conclude the Flying Laptop mission, a de-orbit mechanism will ensure that the satellite burns up in the atmosphere within the 25-year time limit imposed by the United Nations to avoid the formation of additional space debris.

I'm pretty sure I just saw Mayak fly over the Portland, Oregon metro area. To my eye it wasn't quite as bright as Jupiter, but it was almost impossible to miss due to it's rapid movement(I wasn't even looking for it). Anybody know if it was actually there, or did I see something else?

I'd also suggest you to follow VKontakte's page - this social network is more popular than Facebook in Russia and that's why there are more commenters (Apparently the site is blocked here somewhay)

People on Astronomy.ru forum report different information about Mayak. Concerning yesterday's passes:

Alexander Repnoy reports he has seen KANOPUS-V-IK NORAD #42825 for about two minutes with a binocular. The satellite was hard to see. As for Mayak, he wasn't able to see anything.

The user 1212Lupus also reports he couldn't see Mayak. He reminds us that Mayak has no radio link with the Earth to inform us if the commands were executed successfully and the mirror has been deployed. If the mirror deploys, people would be able to see it and the orbit would change rapidly compared to the orbits of other satellites.

Morning! It looks that last night Alexander Repnoy from the Russan Astronomy.ru forum has at long last seen Mayak. A very rough translation:

At 0057 Kiev time UT + 3 I first noticed KANOPUS-V-IK in theatrical binoculars in the Small Bear next to the North Star. At that moment his glitter was about 6-7m. As it went through the constellation of the Dragon, on the approach to Lira (Vega), its brightness began to increase steadily. Next to Lira at 0058 it gained brightness to about 3-4m, then the brightness began to decrease smoothly before entering the shadow of the Earth. There were no bright flashes. The height of its span in my area was 76 ° above the western horizon. After that, already at 0059 all the same in Small bear next to the Polar Star I saw Mayak (NORAD # 42830). Yes-yes, it was it, because the exact trajectory and time converged with the calculated ones. At that moment, its brightness was also at the level of 6-7m, that is, very weak. But when it went in Draco constellation, it quickly, but gradually gained brightness to about 3m, then quickly reduced the brightness to a minimum and I did not see it even with binoculars. But when it was in Draco's head I noticed its sharp glare with brightness of about 0-1m, white color and duration not more than one second. Subsequently I was not able to see it even in binoculars, in Lira near Vega. I did not see other objects from this series. Today, I'll sign up for Satobs org (seesat). I'll tell you so. The calculated brightness of the Mayak stated by Heavens-Above is not true, at least for now. There are also no bright flashes every second. Yes, it is quite possible that somewhere at some point on Earth it may be flashing up to -10m or even brighter than the Moon, but not with us. It's not even the brighness of Venus, so far is not impressive. Although it's still interesting to watch it! I will continue to look.

Wasn't Mayak expected to keep a 3-axis-oriented attitude for around 4 weeks before it was intentionally placed into a tumble? If so, this latter regime would provide frequent flash opportunities, but while it keeps a fixed orientation, large magnitude passes would be quite rare.

Mayak project leader Aleksandr Shayenko has told TASS that the satellite has failed to deploy its reflectors, either due to a manufacturing fault or because of a problem during separation from the launch vehicle. There are no plans for a replacement satellite.

SAN FRANCISCO  Four of the 72 miniature satellites sent into orbit July 14 on a Russian Soyuz 2.1a rocket alongside the primary customer, the Kanopus-V-IK Russian Earth-imaging satellite, are not responding to commands from their operators and two additional cubesats are not in their intended orbits. [...]

The article is incorrect in the part of Iskra-MAI-85 that is alive and working.Also, Mayak cannot respond to command because it lacks command receiver as well as telemetry system.The two MKA-N cubesats seem to be dead.And the story of one Flock and one Lemur being exchanged is extremely strange while obviously true.

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Of 19 cubesats deployed at the 600 km orbit, * Seven Lemurs are working properly as well as the eighth put in wrong orbit;* NanoACE is maneuvering which is visible in TLEs;* UTE was transmitting until July 30 reporting low battery which speaks for design or manufacture problems and not for deployment issues;* Iskra MAI-85 is working properly -- Spacenews probably took this from Izvestia who'd made the error initially;* Mayak, erroneously listed as a Moscow State University satellite, could not respond to anybody because it lacks by design both command receiver and telemetry transmitter;* Two Corvus-BC are reportedly OK;* Two MKA-N satellites are probably dead on arrival;* The only proof for three CICERO failure in the publication is an anonymous source.

So we know for sure of Mayak solar reflector deployment failure (acknowledged by project leader) and MKA-N failure (acknowledged by Dauria some 40 days after the launch). I'd note that Dauria satellites used some custom-built launch system other than quadpacks from ISIS and ECM Space.

I cannot see anything pointing to launch or deployment problems in this mission other than unintended swap of one Flock and one Lemur either in program or signal lines or in physical placement.

« Last Edit: 09/06/2017 07:29 AM by Liss »

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SpaceNews previously reported that the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) Iskra-MAI-85 cubesat was one of the satellites that failed. That report is contradicted by an Aug. 23 MAI announcement, saying The Iskra-MAI-85 satellite repeatedly conducted communication sessions with the MAI Flight Control Center in July and August 2017 and continues to solve the tasks assigned to it.

MAI did not respond to requests for comment on the current status of the cubesat.

The 2 satellites we launched in July are officially unresponsive and today we decided to direct all our teams energy towards our launch next month and declaring both Landmapper-BC1 and Landmapper-BC2 satellites lost. This ends 6 weeks of trying to resuscitate the satellites, whos ability to transmit data back to earth was compromised since deployment. This means were facing the similar fate of Dauria Aerospaces two MKA-N satellites, Moscow Aviation Institutes Iskra-MAI-85, and Moscow State Universitys Cosmo Mayak who were all on the Soyuz rocket bay with the suspected anomaly. While our satellites are tested to withstand insane stress on launch the suspected launch anomalies like what was reported by Space News could have generated conditions in excess of what most satellites plan for which, could have fried our key electronics  even systems hardened for the extremes of space.

Before losing contact, our ops team verified functioning subsystems  solar panels, antenna deployment, power system, attitude sensors  so we are moving fast on doing the final testing and assembly for our launch in November. While this loss costs us 4 months of time, we will launch again soon and by the spring be able to be back at planned capacity. Lots of love to the amazing team over the last few weeks trying everything to work around what ultimately is a hardware failure out of their control. Weve been quoting Elon a lot lately  space is hard.

According to a space industry executives from a different company, Starr paid the claim after Astro Digital presented telemetry documents from Glavkosmos, the subsidiary of Russian state space corporation Roscosmos that arranged the small satellite launches. Those documents showed that one of two attitude control thrusters on the Fregat upper stage failed to fire but instead pumped out hydrazine, which exploded when the second thruster fired.Since the July 14 Soyuz launch, when 72 small satellites traveled to orbit alongside Russian Earth imaging satellite Kanopus-V-IK, satellite engineers and insurance executives have been struggling to understand what happened because at least nine cubesats stored in one area of the Fregat upper stage never responded to commands from their operators while the vast majority of satellites launched on the rocket worked as designed.For months after the launch, students at Moscow State University, whose Mayak cubesat also failed, investigated possible causes. After attempting to replicate launch conditions and analyzing information on the Fregat and the fate of cubesats stored alongside Mayak, the students determined Mayak and other failed satellites put into orbit with an approximate apogee of 600 kilometer have failed because of the ingress of decomposition products of hydrazine from one or more low-thrust liquid engines, used in the reactive control system of the upper stage Fregat, Claudia Kitova, a Mayak spacecraft engineer, said by email.

Roscosmos explained to TASS that the failure of Fregat thruster DT7 at 11440 seconds appeared some 30 minutes after the separation of all the satellites in question which occured between 9180 and 9590 seconds into flight.

"Dauria Aerospace" is still in uncertainty because of the situation around the launch of a pair of MKA-H satellites, manufactured by the company on the order of Roskosmos. The satellites failed to communicate, Roskosmos GC demands to return all funds paid under the state contract, refuses to hold an emergency commission that could establish the reasons for the failure, and representatives of the state corporation publicly report untrue facts or ignore the real circumstances.

April 15, 2018 Executive Director of the Department of Communications Roskosmos Igor Burenkov in an interview with Alexander Milkus (Alex Milkus) on the radio "Komsomolskaya Pravda" admitted a number of unreliable statements. It seems that the executive director is completely unaware of what is happening under the state contract of R & D "Kubsat-nano" otherwise would not allow such obvious mistakes in his speech. We would have left them without attention, but his words were quoted by many media outlets, so we think it necessary to point out the fallibility of his statements.

Now let's list the facts that contradict the above words:

- out of 72 satellites, the two satellites of Spire Global and Planet were brought to erroneous orbits, i.e. the launch can not be considered completely successful.

- The amount of the contract with Dauria Aerospace, concluded in 2012, was 310 million rubles. Of these, 274 million rubles actually paid and accepted by Roskosmos were paid for, and one and a half billion mentions the executive director is not clear.

- Delays in the consideration of the results of the work of Dauria Aerospace under the contract were allowed by the Roskosmos itself, as is the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court. Ultimately, the satellites were ready for launch by 2016, although they had to wait until the launch of the rocket until mid-2017.

- Although it produced satellites MKA-N Dauria Aerospace, the launch operator of these satellites was the Roskosmos company JSC NPO Lavochkina, which under the contract with Dauria Aerospace developed a system for adapting satellites to the Fregat upper stage, and carried out the satellites to the upper stage block.

- There were no proposals to settle the conflict in the pre-trial order, except for "return all the money" from Roskosmos. On the contrary, Dauria Aerospace offered several variants of a compromise solution of the situation, up to the manufacture of two more satellites at their own expense. Representatives of Roskosmos did not show any interest in this proposal.

- We did not meet any assistance from JSC "NGO Lavochkin" in the investigation of the contingency situation, on the contrary, the representatives of the enterprise refused to provide the "Fugata" telemetry to "Dauria", even in spite of Roscosmos direct orders. A preliminary investigation of Dauria was conducted with the participation of the specialists of the Central Research Institute of Nuclear Physics, and the conclusions of this investigation - the satellites are lost from the influence of external factors.

- Compliance with the start-up obligations includes reports on the launch. The report we received from JSC "NGO Lavochkin" did not contain information about the anomaly on the small engine of the "Fregat" upper stage. But the American company AstroDigital this information was reported, and it was able to obtain insurance for an unsuccessful launch. We are required to pay the full cost of the contract, although the anomaly on the engine could affect our satellites.

Dauria Aerospace has all the necessary documentation to confirm its words: business correspondence, court decisions, technical reports.